


Accusations and Confessions

by lexyhamilton (ohheichoumyheichou)



Category: Christian Bible (Old Testament), תנ"ך | Tanakh
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-28
Updated: 2014-09-28
Packaged: 2018-02-19 02:05:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2370410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohheichoumyheichou/pseuds/lexyhamilton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joseph was sold by his brothers to Egypt and ended up working in the house of one Pharaoh's ministers, by the name of Potiphar. He was a handsome and smart mofo and got advanced quickly. Potiphar's wife had a thing for him and tried to coerce him into having an affair with her, but he refused. She cried rape, and Joseph ended up having to go to jail. It's all in Genesis, put a lot more eloquently. One of my favorite parts of the Bible.<br/>There has been, like, one oblique fic online for this pairing. Not sure I'm doing it justice here, but nevertheless...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Accusations and Confessions

**Author's Note:**

> Written in 2008, reposted from LJ, AFF.net etc  
> Blanket disclaimer on all my biblefic: this is fiction inspired by stories and characters in the Old Testament, not any sort of exegesis or legitimate interpretation.

"He assaulted me..." Potiphar's wife points a long-nailed index finger at the youth standing on the other side of the room. He is a young man, not very tall, a very pretty face despite his sullen expression. "Yes, assaulted me! Threw me upon the floor of my very own home, and had I not been desperate for my virtue, my husband would have been upended by a servant."

"You know it was not so, Madam," Joseph says quietly, eyes lowered, but the heaving of his chest betrays what agitation he is suffering.

"Insolent, violent wretch! He dares contradict when the bruises of his grip are all over my arms!"

Joseph raises his face at the judge. "Might I speak to my master in private?"

***

"Well, my young friend? What say you?"

"My Lord, you know that I did not abuse your trust."

Potiphar's face remains calm, unreadable, just as in the courtroom. Joseph feels something catching in his throat, but he will not give in to tears.

"If you have doubt, see how my garment is torn upon my back and not the front. I wanted to speak of it to the tribunal, but I did not want to shame you and her in the public of the court."

"Only an imbecile would believe her false hysterics and accusations. I am ashamed to stand beside her as it is. And yet I cannot speak against her."

There is silence between them, tense and palpable like a lute string.

Potiphar finally speaks again. "Do you find her alluring, Joseph?"

Joseph's lips tense, his gaze drops. Potiphar wonders if this will be the first lie he hears from the youth in all the time he has known him. It will be a forgivable lie-- far more forgivable than Potiphar's silence in the court.

"My Lord... whatever answer I give might be taken as insult. And the answer does not matter, in my position. She is yours, and I am yours, and there is nothing that could give me override of your authority on her. I respected her and took care of her because it was part of my duty to you."

Potiphar feels a shiver when he hears Joseph proclaim himself 'his.' "A wise answer, as usual. Joseph-- who will I talk to when you are gone from me?"

"Master, I will be put to death."

"I know, Joseph, I know," Potiphar is scowling, not facing him, fist at his mouth.

Joseph's body convulses. "Have mercy, Master." The words come out as one great sob. Joseph has fallen to his knees, wrapping his arms around his master's ankles. Potiphar's ringed hand runs down Joseph's back. He lifts the youth's chin, to see the kohl running down his cheeks in gray streams, drawing ankhs around his eyes.

"You supplicate me? Where is your famous nameless God, Joseph?"

"My God operates through all parts of His world. You may well be His instrument to save me."

Potiphar smiles. It is sophistry, of sorts, but Joseph could always frame and reframe his arguments until one had no rebuttal. If only the court outside would deign to listen to a slave, they might well come to believe his word over that of a well-born Egyptian lady.

"Are you angry with me, that I attracted her gaze at all?" Joseph says with a pathos that makes Potiphar's vitals feel like they are withering.

"No..." Potiphar mutters. "No, not in the least."

He plunges down to kiss the youth's lips, despite the kohl running into them, despite Joseph's widening eyes. There is no protest, but Joseph stops breathing too.

"You are a son to me, a spouse, a friend, all in one," Potiphar says on releasing his lips. "If only she had not run with her wild complaints to the entire neighborhood, we might have taken you into bed with us. The woman tires me for years now-- it would have reinforced our marital bond, I think."

Potiphar smiles when he sees Joseph's eyes still betraying astonishment. "Or would you refuse, Joseph, for your virtue?"

Joseph avoids looking into Potiphar's eyes. "A slave's only virtue is obedience."

"And are you a slave, Joseph? Does that really sum you up?"

"I am glad to be treated so graciously by you, as if indeed I were more. But my brothers sold me."

"Your nameless desert God... would he not disapprove of you, going to bed with two old, insatiable Egyptians?"

Joseph bites his lip. "I do not know what God desires for me. He does not speak to me directly, as He did to my father, and grandfather, and great-grandfather."

"You blush when you picture going to bed with us."

Joseph blushes yet more intensely. "I am from the desert. The Kingdom and the city surprise me often, but only because I have seen so little before."

Potiphar pulls Joseph back to his feet, embracing him tightly, kissing him again. Again, no protest, but Joseph is merely pliant not reciprocating, head tilting backwards under Potiphar's ministrations until his plaited wig slides off and falls to the ground.

"Tell me, did my wife give signs of her interest in you?"

Joseph's lips look red and swollen from the increased violence of the last kiss. "I regretted to notice it. I pretended to be too naive to respond, and did not complain of it to you. I was naive, not to have foreseen this..."

Potiphar presses Joseph's body into his, stroking his shorn head. "You are dearer to me than my wife, Joseph. Than anyone else upon the earth." Joseph feels more kisses along his neck, along his jaw, and then... tears? He dares not verify if his master is crying. "And yet a civilized society such as ours demands that I put you to death, despite knowing full well your innocence."

"Have mercy, Master."

"It is not a question of mercy but honor. I must guard the honor of a woman who does her utmost to lose it."

"But have mercy on me. I am terrified to die."

Potiphar laughs mirthlessly. "Not many would admit it. We try our utmost to make death seem a natural progression of life as it is now."

"It would be natural progression if I were guilty of the crime."

"True." Potiphar smiles sadly, shaking his head. "I think your God has indeed chosen me to be an instrument of your salvation. But I do not think I could mitigate the sentence below a lifetime in the dungeon. Do you really prefer that to the peace of death?"

"I do not revere death as an Egyptian does. Life is always preferable, for there is a glimmer of better things to come."

"Or worse. Joseph-- I do not want to lose you. I will toss and turn every night knowing you are below ground in a dank pit with other unfortunates."

"Then pray for me when you think of me. To your gods."

Potiphar wants to take Joseph fully, on the couch, the limestone floor, the alabaster column, on the steps of their riverfront garden, but none of it is to be. It would be cruelty to pursue anything else when the youth is agitated and awaiting a terrible verdict.

He arranges the wig on Joseph's head, and wipes his cheeks of the gray streaks adorning them. Together they head back into the atrium of Potiphar's house that is doubling as courtroom on this black day.


End file.
